'Cos I've been trying to put some effort into the whole "get Mazarun to trust William" thing, and leaving without him could well damage that. Drow generally expect backstabbing, and abandoning him in the midst of an enemy camp...

'Cos I've been trying to put some effort into the whole "get Mazarun to trust William" thing, and leaving without him could well damage that. Drow generally expect backstabbing, and abandoning him in the midst of an enemy camp...

Yes, I overthink these things.

's cool, Mazarun would probably be telling him to get out while the getting's good. He doesn't need William to watch him harvesting warlord heads like they're going out of style, anyway.

And honestly, since DM ruling is Maz isn't getting out the same way as you guys, taking an extra moment to drop Kharn's head in a bag is as good a reason as any.

Do we get cutscenes written for the parts not RPed?
And, uh, can we take Kharn's head with us when we escape? Or an ear or hand or something at least?

Well, as far as cutscenes are concerned -- I hadn't planned on doing so, mainly because I'd estimate a good ten, fifteen pages of writing or more for me to get through a blow-by-blow account of the Company's escapades on those four missions. Sort of defeats the purpose of a speedup. What I had more in mind that if you guys wanted, you could flashback the scene for yourselves, in that I've given you what will happen so you can act with (reasonable) godmode on in those scenes. I'm not saying you have to RP out the scene, or even do a flashback, but what I intend on the next update is to fast-forward to the day of, or day before, the Red Hand's arrival/assault on Brindol. I'm just acting on the good suggestion Xan had that maybe I take a break from writing cutscenes and you guys get the opportunity to do it

As for Kharn's head or other body parts getting chucked into bags ... sorry, no, the fates don't work out that way. Nothing to stop Mazarun sticking around to try and saw off parts of Kharn's anatomy, I like that as a motivation, but there isn't enough time before the position's overrun and he has to get the hell out of Dodge. Not everything gets to go to plan in life. There's also that hacking off a head with at best a few seconds and something that's more like a knitting needle than a meat cleaver is, well, stretching it a bit. If it's any consolation, Raise Dead is a spell of a level the Red Hand is unlikely to have sitting in one of its clerics' minds right at the moment; that much will be apparent to the party from its Scrying escapades. The clerics in the Hand are formidable in number, certainly, but they're mostly not of the Company's levels -- if you can figure out how to put that in IC terms

P.S.: Character motivations for leaving Maz/Ariel behind don't have to be entirely willing on William's part. Maybe he's mistaken about everyone being accounted for when he casts; maybe he's been conked on the head from a hobgoblin's critical hit and casts without checking to see everyone's good to go. All up to you guys, as I say.

In any case, at least it provides a decent reason for the delay. Whether it be trying to score a trophy, or just damaging the eyes in a vindictive bit of 'be blind in the afterlife' thought, it gives some excuse for Mazarun neglecting his usual healthy precaution of not getting separated from the safe ticket out wizard.

No kidding. I was looking at a high-level module that had an endgame battle where one of the options was a set-up for a final stand TPK ending and my thought process was "well, with some decent luck regarding saves/SR rolls, enough full casters and adequate spell picks, a party could totally win this one in two to three rounds." Use save-or-lose spells to secure the action advantage and then DPR the rest into oblivion.

All right, I'm headed out of computer contact for a few days, so you can probably expect an update around this time next week, to be honest - it'll take me a little while to write things up, but of course I'll be checking the thread on and off...